Graduate Programs in the Life Sciences

Research Focus

Our research is characterized by the four major areas below and seeks answers to both applied and basic questions. The techniques we use are varied and wide ranging.||Insecticide resistance and evolutionary biology. Resistance is one of the major problems facing public health and agriculture. Resistance has been referred to as "instant evolution" and causes major disruption whenever vectors of human disease or pests of agriculture can no longer be controlled. We study resistance as both a problem for which we need practical solutions, as well as an intensely interesting problem in basic evolutionary biology. We specialize in investigating the mechanisms (biochemical and genetic), inheritance, management, fitness costs and population genetics of insecticide resistance. ||Insect genetics and molecular biology are active areas of research in our laboratory. We examine the genetic control and linkage of important traits (such as insecticide resistance), and we are now investigating the functions of a new gene repressor in insects which was recently identified by our group. We have also identified the recent "invasion" of a unique type of sex determination system in house fly populations in New York (male factor has moved to an autosome). The reason for the increasing frequency of this type of sex determination is one of many unanswered questions.||Sex determination in house flies is studied to better understand the factors responsible for the differences in the linkage of the male determining factor in field populations. R. Hamm recently discovered that 100% of male house flies in Florida are autosomal males (M is on autosome 3) and 100% of the males in Maine are Y males. Her dissertation research is aimed at better understanding this phenomenon.||Insecticide toxicology and metabolism studies are carried out to better understand the target sites of current and novel insecticides, as well as their pharmacodynamics (movement and fate within the organism). Studies have involved neuophysiological investigations into insecticide action as well as efforts to identify the enzymes involved in the metabolism of the insecticide.

Educational Background

• B.S., Biochemistry, Michigan State University
• M.S., Entomology (minor in Neurobiology), Michigan State University
• Ph.D., Entomology, University of California, Riverside